DC’s dry April worsens drought

 

NOAA's three-month precipitation outlook

Despite the chilly and damp final few days of April, this month will still finish as a warmer and drier than average month in the nation’s capital. April will become DC’s ninth drier than average month over the past 12 months. That’s resulted in severe drought conditions across the DMV (DC, Maryland and Virginia).

The combination of a warmer and drier than average March and April has left the DMV in a difficult position heading into summer. Since 2025 was drier than average in the nation’s capital, this year got underway with a rainfall deficit of 6.26” that carried over from last year. Although the 2025-2026 winter season was DC’s coldest in more than two decades, it was also a drier than average season, so no ground was made up.

March and April will rank among DC’s Top 10 warmest. The combination of continued drier than average weather has led to the expansion of drought conditions across the DMV. That’s not good news for area gardens or farmers who depend on there being adequate rainfall.

However, the drier than average conditions over the last 12 months have been similar to other recent periods of abnormally dry weather in the DMV.  For example, DC experienced drier than average years in 2023, 2024 and 2025. Not since the mid-1980s has the nation’s capital experienced three consecutive drier than average years. Although there have been some wetter than average months over the last few years, they haven’t been enough to offset the predominantly drier than average weather. 

Before the current stretch of abnormally dry weather, the last time the nation’s capital experienced a drier than average period that lasted more than two years was a 32-month period from August 2015 – March 2018. However, as longtime Washingtonians may recall, 2018 finished as DC’s wettest year on record. That illustrates how a hard pivot can occur from drier than average to wetter than average conditions in the nation’s capital.

NOAA’s three-month outlook for May, June and July is for an increased chance of above average rainfall for much of the DMV.  That’s exactly what the nation’s capital needs heading into the summer months.

Driest April’s at Dulles Airport (Source: NOAA)

1. 0.33” (1985)
2. 0.93” (1967)
3. 1.17” (1963)
4. 1.29” (2010, 1968)
6. 1.31” (1976)
7. 1.34” (1969)
8. 1.62” (1978)
9. 1.67” (2026) à as of April 30
10. 1.71” (1994)
11. 1.74” (2024)

Average: 3.47”

Warmest April’s at Dulles Airport (Source: NOAA)

1. 61.0° (2017)
2. 60.3° (2026) à as of April 30
3. 60.1° (1994)
4. 59.3° (2010)
5. 59.1° (2023)
6. 59.0° (2024, 2019)
8. 57.7° (2025)
9. 57.3° (1960)
10. 57.1° (1985)
11. 57.0° (1981)